


The Dryad and the 100 Year Knight

by EnidZsasz



Category: Faerie Folklore, Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Fae & Fairies, Faeries Made Them Do It, Magic, Magical Creature Rey, Mind Control, Mind Manipulation, Nymphs & Dryads, Very sad at points, Violence, Writer Ben Solo
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-21
Updated: 2019-08-22
Packaged: 2020-09-19 08:35:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 10,647
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20328205
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EnidZsasz/pseuds/EnidZsasz
Summary: Ben Solo is a writer, he has been for almost ten years quickly becoming popular with his book series. So popular they started to make an animated series of it. Going onto a talk show Ben, decides to take a short break before he writes the last book heading back home. Where he dives back into a world he seems to have forgotten.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> You may have noticed I posted portions of this on tumblr, that is just my writing process. Basically a bunch of loosely connected scenes how I have them in my head. I then rewrite it down, stretching things out, shortening, or altering.

Ben smiled as the cameras turned back to him and the anchor, just getting back from a commercial break. "And we are back with Mr. Organa!" she said and he smiled it still felt fake. Her's however was even more fake as she smiled. "So, just how excited are you for your new animated series?" she asked him, he leaned back. 

"Well, I am very excited, who wouldn't be? Its the greatest honor and the animators are the most amazing people I know." he praised. He knew he gained a completely ruthless reputation in the industry as the writer, he had some sway in how SHE looked. He didn't let them get off on anything he thought was less then perfect. The anchor laughed a fake laugh, and he nodded. 

"You were pretty ruthless I hear on them. So you better praise them." she teased. 

"Yes, I apologize, but she, um, the dryad is very important to me." he replied. There was a titter around the room, from the girls mainly. 

"Oh yes, the stories are based on an encounter you had when you were little right?" he nodded. "Perhaps you can give us the details now?" Ben shrugged. 

"Its the way it is in the books," he replied. "I got lost in the forest as a little kid, and I met a dryad who guided me back home." 

"Well, we have a long preview of your animated show, will you give us a run down of your story?" He sighed. 

"Its the Dryad and the 100 Year Knight. A young man meets a dryad as a kid, finds out she is in danger then dedicates his life to training so he can be her knight." he explained. "However things don't go as planned and he is forced to serve her in order to save his father, he fights for 100 years as her Knight Wren." he turned to her smiling. 

"You were so cruel in ending your last book on a cliffhanger!" she scolded him. 

"I do apologize for that, but that was more my publisher Hux doing that then me." she grinned nodding. 

"Well I sure hope you get the next book out fast!" she laughed, he laughed nodding. This was the last of these he was going to do. He hated them, and hated talking about HER as if she never existed. As if she was just a thing he imagined, to be honest to him, she was more real then anything. "Did you really do the things in the book?" He turned back to the anchor. 

"You mean train?" he asked her. She nodded eagerly. "Yes, of course I did." 

"That is amazing! Now, lets watch the preview!" He smiled, still feeling fake as the studio went dark focusing on the large TV screen that would show the animation preview. 

* * *

_The world was dark, lit only by the light of the full moon. He was small, he was angry, lost and scared. The gawky eight year old having run from his families home in the echoes of them yelling rolling through the forest. As he wandered a shadow chased his, he ran blindly scared. A wolf chased him, but it was wrong. It had six legs, and jaws that seemed to open up halfway into the beast. A long staff hit it, knocking it away from him as he fell stumbling back against a tree. The wolf whined in pain, as a thick shadow stood over him. It looked to the shadow with hungry red eyes, but then ran off, leaving the world still in its wake. Finally the shadow turned, and the title appeared with HER. _

_She was beautiful, he stared up at her, she had brown hair that was just barely turning red at the ends. She sat squarely in the slight uncanny valley of looks, maybe the eyes too big, cheekbones a little too sharp looking. Sun freckles on her cheeks and shoulders placed a little too regular. Ears long and tipped, like an elf's, with a thick garland of oak leaves around her head, keeping her hair away from her face. She wore the same oak leaves as a skin tight clothes, covering her less then modestly, but still the same as any swimsuit one would wear. She turned back to him eyes wide and scared, and he wondered how something could be scared of him. _

_"Are you... okay little boy?" she asked him. ((In his mind her voice was like the rustling of leaves in the wind, like the gentle soothing breeze of summer, but not here. That was impossible to describe and to get.)) He sniffed, sitting back up and wiping his nose with the back of his arm. _

_"I'm lost..." he told her and she smiled to him. The staff in her hand vanished, and she bent down in front of him._ _"I want my mom." he told her. She nodded. _

_"I can help you." she replied and reached out her hands to him. _

_"They told me there was a monster in the woods..." _

_"Well the monster was just beaten up by me." she grinned. He didn't need anything else taking her hands as she helped him up. Fallen leaves surround them, and then vanished a moment later, they were in the center of the forest where there stood an old oak tree that had a long time ago been struck by lightning. Split in half it was still alive folding out and around, creating a almost portal like portion of the tree as it thrived. Whatever fear he had left was gone with the wonder of teleportation. "Anyone looking for you will come here." she told him._ _"Hungry?" _

_His stomach growled and she giggled, he watched in pure wonder as the portal seemed to glow, as though the sun was shining through it, she reached in and pulled out an apple the size of his head, the light vanishing as she turned back to him handing him the apple. "My mom told me to never take food from strangers." she giggled. _

_"My name is------" her name was obliterated by a gush of wind, a rattle of leaves, the slight creak of branches, ((the smell of the air in his nose.))_ _"What is yours?" _

_/////////////////////////////_\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

Ben's mind slid away from watching the animation, his memories, dreams, he told himself again coming up into him. It seemed just odd, of course it was odd, how he was able to get everything down so fast. How he could know almost any detail in his head like it really happened. They were just dreams, and just his imagination playing with him. But he couldn't help constantly comparing the animation to those memories, to those dreams. They were close, oh so close, but not close enough for him to really love it to death. He closed his eyes bringing the memories to the fore sparing himself the needed changes from the books, to animation, and from his memories to the books. It all felt fake, completely fake and he hated it. He hated how they wanted him to depict her, she was his pure muse, the witch that had enchanted him in the woods when he was just a child. Her face was written on his heart and no matter how hard he tried, and he had tried, he couldn't find a single person to compare to her. 

He just was too prideful of something he didn't dare think of, he believed. That something like her could love him he thought alone at night. Away from the forest and aching to go back. He closed his eyes calling up the memory of meeting her, it can't be just a dream, it was too vivid, to clear even so long after it happened. 

_/////////////////////////////_\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

_He grinned up at her. "Ben! Ben Organa! My mom is Leia and my dad is Han! I have a uncle named Luke!" he told her and bit into the apple. It was perfect as he ate it, and he found himself eating the entire thing down to the core feeling full and happy. Though a little unsettled at the strangeness of it. _

_"Don't worry, I promise it won't hurt you. I swear I won't hurt you Ben, but don't ever tell anyone your name understand? Its dangerous." he looked at her curiously. "Ah... well... I've never been around kids.... am I scaring you?" he blinked to her, shaking his head. _

_"Nope! You're pretty!" she grinned back to him giggling._ "I'm bored can you tell me a story?" _he watched as she took the core of the apple picking out the seeds and tossing the rest away to rot. The seeds were huge, almost covering his entire palm as she passed one to him. _

_"Burry that near your home and it will protect it okay?" he put it into the pocket of his pajama pants nodding fiercely. "Hmm... a story. AH! Have you heard much of your grandfather?" he shook his head staring at her. "He was a great warrior, he fought for me since I'm not so good at it. I hate violence, I hate it so much." he went pensive looking at her. "I've known him ever.... ever since I can remember. You see..." she rose her hand and the leaves followed her command. Several figures appeared to his eager eyes._ _One that had to be her, and one that looked sharp and dangerous made of blackened dead leaves that was by her. "I am the last of my kind Ben, the very utter last." several more figures appeared, twisted with small branches, one large that loomed over the two figures. Even as a little figure it gave him a chill, its tiny face perfect. "I drew the eye of the Winter King who loves rare things, he collects them...." he watched heart beating in fear as the 'king' commanded more twisted shapes to attack her, and his grandfather. It had to be his grandfather, his grandfather fought them all off. _

_"But one day, your family came into my place, they had been gone for a long time." he watched as the scene changed, the mansion he lived in appearing as a pure white thing stalled at the steps, looking to the forest and to his grandfather. She approached him. "You would have loved to see them, your grandfather was smitten. But he had a duty to me, that I couldn't break... that I can't break." she told him sadly. "He made her swear that her entire family would serve to protect me, as much as they can, you are all human... mostly after all." the two figures his grandfather and grandmother danced together. But he looked to the suggestion of the forest, to the tiny little red leaf there among the sickly brown ones watching them. _

_"Your grandfather was a changeling, half of my kind... he had given his heart wholly to your grandmother and I did all I could so that he could love her. But then the winter king came himself for me." the world went dark, black as it changed into where they were now. The King loomed over her, but she ran, the king followed and he knew the king loved it. Chasing after her useless fleeing. "I tried to run, and run, but he was always behind me. I didn't want to call for your grandfather, but he sensed I was in trouble and came to me. He challenged the King to a battle." he watched as his grandfather's figure stood before the King. _

_"The battle was fierce, it was long..." he watched it, growing sleepy. "But in the end, he was still more mortal then the King. He landed a blow on the King, slicing his heavenly visage into how he truly was. A twisted monster." she frowned. "But your grandfather was near death, and he would die." The little red leaf went next to him, SHE went next to him before the King could kill him, the perfect visage cut in half, monstrous. "I gave up a part of myself to save him." she explained. "I knew I would never be able to fight the King and win, and only delay it. But the King enjoyed what I did, he enjoyed it to much he made a vow that so long as your grandfather was healing under his own magic, that he would stay away." He watched as his grandfather was placed into a twisted looking tree. "He enjoys making me wait. But he still hasn't come back, and now I have to fight the monsters he sends to harass me myself. Just because he can't collect me, does not mean he can not sent his own creatures to do so." Ben watched as the leaves fell back to stillness. _

_"You're... in danger?" he asked her. He was raised on cartoons, he was raised with the good guys always winning. _

_"Always, but its okay. The least I can do is enjoy as much as I can before I am taken." She looked up at the sky. _

_"I'll protect you!" he told her, she blinked down to him face blank. "I swear it!" _

_"Little one, no. You can't do such a thing understand? You're young, a child. And You can't fight much of anything." he grimaced. His little heart swearing that he would grow strong for HER. No matter what, he wasn't going to stay a weak little kid for long, he was going to grow up, and be the strongest there was. _

_"I'll be your Knight Miss-" he stated firmly standing. He found himself a moment later blinking unknowing of something that just had happened. She had her hands on his shoulders, face wrote in pure terrified concern. "I will! I will protect you!" he vowed. She drew away, breathing out. _

_"I need to give you something okay?" he looked to her confused. From the rest of the seeds she made a necklace, putting it over his head. "Don't you ever come here again, these seeds will protect you I swear it." he blinked as he was encased in leaves, and then deposited at the entrance of the forest as his parents began yelling for him. He didn't know exactly what had happened, but he knew he had to get strong. It was written on his heart and soul to get stronger, to become a living weapon. It most definitely disturbed his parents, but then most of what he liked disturbed them afterwards. He'd go into the forest at every single opportunity, they never went in, continuing to tell him of the monster in the woods. Most off all, he never took off the necklace, and he buried the seed in the backyard of his families home, it growing into a apple tree that grew at a more amazing speed that seemed to disturb his family even more. _

_But he never seemed to catch sight of her again, no matter how much he looked for HER. No matter the times he chased shadows out of the forest with a crowbar, he never saw her. He never saw her again he told himself over and over again, but that felt like an utter lie. _

_ _/////////////////////////////_ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ _

"Well, that was amazing!" she praised as the world came back to him. He wiped his hands off on his pants nodding. "SOOO what are you going to do as you write the next book?" she asked him.

"Oh its already written, but I am personally taking a break to my families home as it is edited and such." she nodded to him. 

"Well I hope you have a lovely vacation Mr. Organa." he grinned. 

"I very much will. Its been almost ten years since I've been there. I can't wait to go back." he was nearly shaking with the need for it.

"Tell me, in the last book will we learn the dryads name?" she asked him he blinked. Her name was the-He shrugged. 

"Oh, don't be cruel now!" 

"Yes we will learn it, I think it needs to be special don't you?" she giggled. 

"Yes well, what about the grandfather? Will he finally make an appearance?" 

"He will, but it won't be nice." 

"Can you give us any details?" 

"He'll come back but it will be with the enemy, remember how the dryad said it wasn't her magic healing him?" the lady gasped putting her hand to her mouth. 

"That's cruel! Will the knight have to kill him?" Ben tapped his nose. "Oh! Don't you lie to us!" he chuckled. "Anyways, I know this question might be asked a lot, but what was your favorite book to write? And what was your favorite scene?" 

"That would be Book Three, and there is a scene in that book that is my favorite." 

"Let me guess... its the gift he gives her the blanket?" she asked he grinned. 

"Dead on," he touched his chest. "I just feel like that scene just proves how... unclouded he was." the woman giggled along with the crowd. 

"Ben, everyone says that scene proves he loves her, and that there was a... geas put on him." He blinked to her. "That's the speculation," she smiled a fairly private smile. "I would guess, that the last book it would finally be lifted and he can TELL her his feelings?" 

"Its quite possible!" he replied smiling. 

Once outside of the studio he ignored the calls of his fans getting into his car quickly. He was already packed, all ready to go and raced off towards his family home. He needed to go home it was nearly the dead of winter and something in him told him that he needed to go home. He always felt the need but was able to push it away, but now the need had taken into his mind and body. He stalled feeling exhausted as he had just wound the car in the long drive up to the gothic mansion his family owned. He spent thirteen hours in the car doing the bare minimum in stopping as he could manage. 

He looked to the forest and froze, three liquid shadows merged into the forest the bodies seeming to flood around and through the stand of trees. The mansion was quiet, his family should be awake waiting for him but there wasn't a light on. He was inside a thick iron ring that had been placed around the mansion at some point in the past, he was watching as the shadows vanished into the woods. He moved fast, running after them, as soon as he leapt over the ring he heard laughter, a duel sort of laugh from two things. He slid, destroying the nicer slacks with grass stains something whooshed over his head and he quickly danced behind a tree, throwing his car keys behind him. 

There was a scream, two of them in fact as he heard a thud. Looking behind him he stared at a two headed harpy like being. Screaming as the keys pinned them down burning away a hole into the ribcage. If they weren't removed the create would die, he knew it as he knew the muscles in his body. Instead of helping the creature he turned from it, and ran into the forest further. Dodging shadows, going for the direct center. They seemed to be either egging him on or scared of him, but he was thrown down as he came to the center, into the clearing around the split oak tree there. Two sets of hands forced him down, forced him to kneel with unnatural strength and unnatural coldness to the fingers. 

One more behind him grabbed the back of his head hand fisting in his hair and forcing him to look up. He locked eyes with HER, in the real world and not in his memories or imagination. It was her, the Dryad. Her hair was white, as it always was during winter. She had a new scar on her thigh, and a fresh cut on her stomach, shallow but bleeding. Pure rage filled him at the sight of her hurt, but that melted out with how she looked at him.

_///////////////////////////// \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\_

_The knight Wren caught the dryad looking at him through the mirror as he fought against one bored looking satyr. It seemed to so easily fight against him amd he hated it, but he turned and caught her relfection in the mirror he used to clean himself after these sorts of bouts of training. Everyone knew the look she had, everyone man or woman knew that look, etched on the fabric of humanity. Even the fae had that look, a sort of wistful smile._

_He reached out blindly grabbing the satyr before it could even try to move against him, throwing the beast over his head and into the stream nearby scattering giggling nymphs as they bathed. She clapped at him as he turned to her, face passive, now not showing emotion. "Impressive!" She praised. He hated the way she looked at him, it wasnt possible, and he hated the way it made him feel. She betrayed him, he knew that, and he hated how he could hate her. _

_"Dont look at me like that!" He yelled to her stomping up to her. She flinched hunching down and he regretted being angry at her. "I saw your face in the mirror..." he added lowly. She drew away from him standing up features sad for a moment before going still as a mask. 'Dont look at me like that, dont look at me like you love me, if you love me I have no reason to go home. I'd stay here forever with you basking in the love of the perfection you are.' He wanted to tell her. But they twisted out of his mouth into spmething else. "Just dont look at me again understand? I hate the way that looked." _

_She nodded and he hated it, he hated the words so much because she was crying. He rose his hand towards her, wanting nothing more then to touch her to comfort her, but his hand only encountered leaves as she vanished. "Please... I love you." He mouthed out after the leaves settled down. "I dont know why I cant tell you. I dont know why I cant... why I cant love you." He grimaced as the nymphs began giggling. _

_"Shut up all of you!" He yelled they vanished to, taunting him as they did so. Why was he cursed, and he knew why, it had to be Snoke, it had to be the king of Winter who cursed him. He couldn't tell her he loved her, but he could SHOW her he loved her. If she would ever let him near her that is. He spun out as he gathered his things into a another hate filled spiral. She was pure and he was not, she was beautiful and he was as the nymphs called him a 'hairless ape'. He hated that he could only show physical affection because it felt impure, it felt flawed and disgusting. _

_ _///////////////////////////// \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\_ _

She looked angry in the next breath looking at him. "I told you to never come back!" she yelled to him. He blinked, shock filling him to his core. This can't be real, he had to have crashed his car, he had to be dead. She was real, he knew her, they weren't just dreams and imaginings. He could only feel disgusted at himself, only feel shame and hate, he left her. He left her here alone for almost ten years. He never should have tried to write what he did, never should have moved. He opened his mouth to speak but she jerked her head to the side eyes going black in terror. Every other head looked to the side next, and he followed with his human slowness. The ground wasn't covered by a layer of snow in the forest. It never seemed to touch the ground here. 

But the snow began to creep in, and he watched as the tree's themselves moved away, one slow one, was touched by it and turned completely into ash, vanishing a moment later. Pure darkness floated over the blanket of snow. The area was silent, breathless waiting. All the elves around him turned to it smiling in their glacier colored faces. _'dark elves, Snoke's elite guards'_ he thought. The Unicorn stepped out away from the thick blanket, and stomped into the clearing. It was massive, and only looking like a horse in its general shape. Insectoid it had thick grey scale plates that slid seamlessly. They were as hard as granite, and he knew it was deadly powerful. On its slight hoof like feet there was dried blood, and on the tip of the horn and down part of its face with crab like maw had more dried blood. It was twice the size of the largest horses he had ever seen and it had to be. The thing ridding almost causally on its back was almost twice, if not three times larger then a normal human being. 

Snoke was twisted, his face split in half with a scar and nearly hairless. He had been beautiful, anyone can see that, but the scar twisted his face into the monster that he was. With eerily white eyes that one had to stare into to find any sort of area where the sclera began. His pupil so small it might as well not exist as he stalled in front of her. His gold and red robes around him dragged spreading the blanket of snow, slowly he stepped down and every elf around him seamlessly slid to their knees, he was let go, but he knew he couldn't do anything. He had no weapons on him. 

"Now we have our audience." Snoke said, his voice was the shattering of trees as the winter froze the water in them. He watched as she shivered taking a futile step back as he loomed over her. She looked frail, she looked like a child next to him. 

"Don't hurt him, please." she begged. Snoke rose his hand towards her. 

"DON'T YOU TOUCH HER!" he yelled, the creature froze hand extended out to her. 

"Kill-" he began. A blade made of pure ice sprung to existence under his chin. 

"NO!" The Dryad yelled the moment the word began to leave his lips. Ben stared at her, she looked to him. 

"No?" he questioned, he reached up and just barely touched her cheek. Blackened portions of her skin sprung to life, but she didn't move only flinched. He could feel the burn like it was on his own skin, and her pain and terror. She slumped down hair pulled back into three buns, he had put it up like that once, and he realized she had kept it like that. Hair pulled back away from her face, making her just a little more human he shamefully thought. 

"You just can tell me to do it." she replied lightly. "Leave him alone, swear it, and I will give it to you." Snoke looked amused, standing back up looking to him and back to her waiting. Her face fell. "I'll give you the last part of my name if you swear not to hurt him." Ben felt his veins turn to ice. 

"No! Don't do it!" he told her, she turned to him, and then quickly away. 

"I told you not to come back." she said just barely loud enough to hear. 

"I do you better, if you give me the last of your name, I swear not my hand, or any hand I command will harm him, or his family, ever again." Ben glared to Snoke, the creature gave him an amused glance. "Soften the blow just for you my lovely pet." she knelt down in pure defeat. 

"Rey?" he whispered, the blade slipped a little closer to him and he went silent. The name he gave her so he could stop calling her dryad, so he could have a name for her. 

"I'm sorry Wren." she told the snowy ground encroaching on her. "Its for the best, you won't need to fight again." 

"Do you accept or does the ape die?" Snoke questioned. 

"I accept." the weight of the deal settled down and the blade vanished from his neck. "My name is---" the wind blew, obliterating what she stated. Golden threads flooded out of her mouth and she went still on the ground. Snoke reached up to the tree and pulled out an acorn still on the branches, maybe the only one still there. His other hand reached out, touching the threads, playing with them. He cracked open the top of the acorn, and the threads flooded into the acorn. There was a flash of black, taking out his vision for the single moment. Snoke held up the acorn there was a single letter written on it. 

"Your name is now mine, I write the change and you are mine own." he spoke. From inside of his robes he pulled out another three, then slipped a gold thread from his robes. Stringing them together, like she had strung together the apple seeds a long time ago, he draped the necklace over her neck. "I forbid all but the mortal from hearing her new name." he spoke and the weight of the geas settled deeply into every elf, and the unicorn. He watched as it settled on them, a black sort of mist wavering over their heads. Snoke grimaced in a smile. "Your new name is Kira." he said and each of the acorns around her shuddered, something knocking inside of them trying to make their way out. The dryad stood in front of him, and he pulled put the buns fingers touching her. She didn't flinch, didn't move at all as he draped her hair down her shoulders. 

It was growing longer by the second he noticed, but Snoke put a finger under her chin forcing her face up to him. "Such a pretty pet, now call to your knight and let us leave." Her face didn't show any emotion as she looked around eyes lingering on him. She looked at him like he was nothing more then leaf litter. 

"Who is that?" she asked Snoke. 

"Nothing more then a hairless ape." Snoke replied. Ben wanted to rise but couldn't make himself, something broke inside of him. Finally, yes finally she didn't look like she thought of him as anything. He felt a disgusted relief inside of him, and hated it more then anything else in his life. 

"Very well." She crooked a finger from the forest a twisted tree walked in, stopping nearby the split oak. It always looked to him like a twisted human being, arms and legs akimbo. The roots of the tree crawling like bug legs as it settled down going back into the earth in its new place. The bark peeled back out like many ribs peeling open as a human figure stood inside. Anakin, Ben's grandfather stepped out wearing loose clothes. All black. One of his eyes had a long scar down it, taking the eye, but it had been replaced with a pure black one. He stood like he had all the time of the world in waiting. "His armor and weapons?" she asked. The dark elves separated, bits of armor seemed to appear in their hands as they fitted it on him with practiced ease. 

"I'll kill you Snoke." Ben told him. Snoke looked to him completely amused. 

"Will you now? Amusing." he reached out and touched the top of her head, she didn't show any sign of hurt, but from the way Anakin flinched, he knew it hurt her. Anakin couldn't move against Snoke, hands clenching into fists. "You can't even hurt a tree." Ben glared at him trying to stand and finding himself nearly fused to the ground. He dropped his hand off her head, and Anakin relaxed. "Lets leave this ape to his mortal rutting pet." He swung onto the back of the unicorn, and one dark elf handed her up to sit in front of Snoke. The unicorn turned and began away, but she looked to him again, then away quickly. 

Anakin stalled as the elves left the area turning to Ben. "You have 100 days, Find Maz and become her knight." he stated, Ben blinked to him and watched as Anakin shifted, smoke encasing him and changed into a large wolf before leaping after them. Ben stood as soon as the last of them left the area, the entire ground encased in snow that looked like it had always been there. His breath fogged out as he stared at the split out, now showing no sign it had ever been alive. His heart fell out of his chest, and he ran to it, touching the bark. That's when he felt it, it was still alive, he could feel it's life thrumming under his finger tips. But it was weakening, he knew it to his core, and it was weakening fast, he had little doubt that what his grandfather said was true. He had 100 days, 100 days to find Maz, whoever that was, and become her Knight, more then likely to gain the needed strength to be able to fight against Snoke and all of his people. 

He blinked, Snoke couldn't fight him, he swore not to, not by any of his hands or his command. Ben shivered in the cold, pulling away from the tree with reluctance. Snoke swore not to hurt him or his family, he had the utter advantage. Though he was sure that if he fought to kill any of them the deal would be broken, no he had to play this more skillfully then a brute with a sword. "I'll save you." he told the tree, and ran towards his families home. 


	2. Vows

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ben goes to the only one he can think of to help him. His uncle Luke.

Ben took a look back at the tree, something inside of his head lodging deep inside of him, but he turned and ran towards his families home, not stopping until he was at the doors. Now lights were coming on anger slipped into his heart and instead of being polite he kicked the door in. There was a surprised noise as he thudded in and turned to his mother and father, just starting to make the home look less like a creeping monster. The entire home was gothic, and ten stories tall though more narrow then most homes that large. It held only two rooms on each side. Including the entire open floor of the bottom, the house was just a strange mash of looks. From the gothic black granite outside, with a cherry white wrap around porch. The bottom floor having been ripped out only had the support pillars which were decorated with various animals. 

On his left was the kitchen and dinning room, and on the right was a lounge with a large glass exit to the backyard. If you craned your head just right you could see the apple tree, still loaded with apples which, despite his mothers dislike of it, had produced prize winning apples and jams. Winter never touched the tree, and he thought that uncannily that it was a part of him. They frowned at him, just before his mother could open her mouth he spoke. "She's gone I hope you're happy." he snapped, she looked like he had slapped her. He might as well have. 

"Ben." Han warned, as Ben cast out looking for Luke. He didn't live in the main mansion most of the time, there was a small outbuilding near the forest edge that Luke used. Ben never spared a thought to it, only thinking he was eccentric for nine years, but he put his hand to his face. "Are you okay?" Han asked. His mind flicked over his books, and his fist came down on the table making both jump. 

"Why. Can't I remember." he stated, he didn't ask and his mother frowned letting out a breath. 

"I asked her... I told her that when... that happened, when you were done that you were done. Ben... our entire family has died to do this. I want..." he wasn't really listening very much. "I want one person to live. One portion of our family to go on." 

"Now you don't have to worry about that." he replied darkly. Han stood up, he didn't go too near Ben. 

"What did she do?" he asked softly. Ben wanted to sink down into the earth and never come back up, he wanted to rage and throw things. Very much like he had when Hux had him edit portions of his books. He wanted them as they were told. 'its better if its more pulled back not many people like male first person' Hux stated. He was just a hair's breath away from grabbing the vase of plastic flowers and throwing it.

"She gave up the last bit of her name. Because I am weak." He said darkly hating himself. He put his head in his hands it felt like something was weakening as he called up their next real meeting. As he recalled HER, wanting nothing more then to help her. "I swear I will save her." He vowed. 

_///////////////////////////// \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\_

_Ben had just gotten back from his training in the military, quickly surpassing his mates in everything, but that didn't surprise him. He had spent every day since he had met HER getting stronger. From running around the wrap around porch, to doing weight training to researching various civilian booby traps. Since there was little war to speak of at the moment, he was on official leave. Even though his superiors had wanted him to continue, to stay on, he refused. He wasn't there for them, he was never there for them. Shutting the door, he found his mother staring out at the forest on the verge of tears. "You damn fool." he heard her say. Ben dropped his pack, only grabbing a knife out. "BEN! STO-" he wasn't listening instead he ran, passing through the strand of trees. _

_One tiny looking creature lunged at him, he slashed it in half, it couldn't even scream. He rolled under a long blade that looked like glass, or rather ice. The thing wielding it should be beautiful. It was female, but completely hairless with light blue skin. It laughed at him almost moving with unnatural speed, but it wasn't moving to kill him. Ben dodged forwards and to the side, grabbing the things thin wrist. It snapped like a twig as he twisted it, and it started to scream. He drove the knife into the windpipe silencing it. He didn't let the blade drop, instead taking it from the hands as it fell to the ground. Now running he didn't exactly know where he was going, but he decided on the center where the split tree was. _

_There wasn't much time, or reason for cover, but just barely another one of those creatures with the blue skin was standing just on the outside, he noticed a grim smile as it turned towards him. Hefting the ice blade he tossed it, and it imbedded into the ribcage of it. The scream it made was horrible, even to him, as he then rolled coming out into the clearing around it. First thing he noticed was HER, the next was his father, leaning up against the tree and bleeding. He was holding a small handgun, obviously empty. Ben had no time to think of anything, he saw as if in slow time her tensing and flattened himself to the ground. _

_A moment later he was pinned, a claw pinning his back to the ground. The creature was heavy and as he turned to ogle at it he didn't have a reaction of fear. Only rage, an insect like thing it barely resembled a horse. Having four legs, and a long neck that ended in a vague horse like skull, but the mouth was like a crabs. One spiraling horn sat in the middle of the forehead, jutting out between two plates it was caked in fresh blood that fell down half its face. The color of dull granite, it had beady white eyes that glared down at him. She looked to it, then back to his father, herself between it and him. "Don't hurt him! I beg you!" she yelled. Her half brown, half red hair flying in front of her wide blue eyes. _

_"OH? He killed two of my most elite guards." the creature stated in a voice not of this earth. The voice was cracking, and Ben had the uncanny relation that it was exactly like video footage he had seen of trees nearly exploding from the water and sap inside of them freezing. "Your knight is quite-" Ben was given just an inch of space, and slashed out with the knife. The creature screamed as the blade skipped along its leg, creating a long cut that looked like he had slashed it with a red hot poker. Rolling away Ben came up holding the knife up. It glared at him as it settled back down. _

_"NO!" She screamed, Ben stalled, it had happened faster then he could see, but the point of the horn of the creature, it had to be some kind of unicorn, was nearly stabbing him. It was frozen just barely piercing his chest. Cold burst out from the wound and he was frozen to the spot only shivering. _

_"No?" the voice parodied her panicked scream. To high pitched as the unicorn drew away from him swiveling to look at her._

_"Not him please. Please." It stepped away towards her and she flinched at it stood in front of her. _

_"Then the other one." she took a sharp breath in then let it out defeated and slumping down. _

_"I'll do it... I'll give you another part of my name for them." Ben was let go, body dropping without control to the ground. _

_"No." he had trouble looking up, but he pushed himself up looking to her, she looked hurt. _

_"No?" she squeaked. _

_"One part for one mortal." it bent down, horn edging under her chin forcing her to look into its unkind eyes. She was crying as he struggled to push himself up, it felt like every bit of his energy was gone. She dropped her gaze to him, and then back to the unicorn with a frown. _

_"I'll do it." she said so softly he barely heard it. The pleased noise that came out of the unicorn made both of them shudder. _

_"Ah yes...good little pet." Ben blinked he knew time passed between blinks, but now he felt free to move. She shuddered, turning back to Han and touching him. _

_"I can't... I can't help you... I need... I need something..." she ranted, Ben was by her in a moment. Han was going to die, he had a long deep cut along his stomach that any deeper would have his guts spilling out. A long and swallower cut was across his neck probably keeping him from being able to breathe well, it skipped the thick blood vessels, for a slower death. It was too dangerous to move him. _

_"What do you need?" he asked her she jerked to him as if she expected him not to be there. _

_"I..." she grimaced. "100 years...serving me for 100 years." she said softly. "Then I can heal him..." Ben grabbed her hand making her flinch. _

_"I'll do it." he told her. She gaped to him shaking her head. _

_"No, please don't. Its exactly what he wants." He put her hand onto his fathers chest. _

_"DO IT." he snapped. Her face fell, and she slipped her hand from his. Han grabbed him, hand fisting into his shirt front before pulling him down. _

_"Ben," he said hoarsely. "Don't ever let her do that again. There is only one part left." Ben didn't have time to think of the words, he felt the weight of the deal settle on his shoulders. She let out a sob, as he watched golden light encase Han, in a moment he was healed. Then in the next he was gone in a flood of leaves. _

_"WHERE-" he began sharply, ending abruptly at her look. She looked broken. _

_"At the edge..." she replied sadly. "I'm so sorry Ben... I never wanted this..." he blinked at her. She swallowed down and then stood he could see her repressing her emotions, face going still and placid. "Ben Organa, I accept you as my knight for 100 years, you will serve me and protect me." she reached out touching the split oak tree. A golden portal opened up, flooding out with light. "Come with me..." _

_"I want to-" he began and stopped himself. _

_"I know... I know... I swear your father is safe, I swear he is healed." comfort edged into him at her words. She reached through the portal heading halfway through it, and holding out her hand to him. He took it letting her pull him into whatever place this was. The entire forest around him shifted and changed, he came out where his families home was. He looked back as he walked forwards. The oak wasn't split here, it was strong and straight and nearly brushing against his families home. It was tall and straight and a magnificent specimen. "I wish I had just given up with Anakin." she breathed out. _

_"What... what is this place?" he asked. She closed her eyes and stood away from him. _

_"This is the forest of Ever Light, what is left of the dryad's true realm. I crafted this home with my own power." she gestured to the home behind him. "So that..." she shook herself. "Here I can make time pass faster, if you stay here for long periods of time." he gaped to her. "Ten years for every one year..." she stated sadly. "You won't age until you leave, and I promise, I swear as much as I can that I will allow you to see your family." Ben blinked to her confused. "I will do what I can to not lie to you, or to hurt you, or manipulate you, take your memories." _

_"You... can do that?" he asked her. She frowned. _

_"I ha-" she squeaked then stalled. "Yes. I can, I can't swear it will never be needed..." he looked all around him, and straightened himself. _

_"You... are a dryad?" he stalled as she was nearby him hand on his cheek. _

_"BEN ORGANA." his name rang in her head. "I forbid you from speaking my name in this place." every cell of his body responded with a shudder. _

_"Why?" he asked as she drew away. "WHAT?" _

_"IF... if you speak my name... you'd be here forever...." she told him. "I wouldn't be able to let you go away back home." He blinked nodding to her, he didn't know her name or maybe he did. Something stuck on his heart, but he couldn't think of it. "Do you... want me to show you around?" she asked him, and he scowled shaking his head. "Call out dryad if you need me. I'll... get some of your things... so long as there isn't any iron in them." _

_"Fine." he clipped out heading into his new life. He wanted to go out to see his father he wanted to ensure that he was fine. She touched his arm and he looked down at her. _

_"Tomorrow...I swear it." she told him. Part of him melted, and he smiled down at her. HER, yes her, the face that haunted him ever since he was child. She was real, and it soothed his heart knowing she was real. He was placed whole sale into this, but to him however odd, destructive or strange, she was there. He didn't care so long as she was there a steady rock in this life. "I'll tell you everything you need to know." she told him. "But first... I need to call you something, its too dangerous to say any part of your real name where you don't know who can be listening." _

_Ben nodded. "Whatever you like." he told her softly. _

_"Wren? They are my favorite birds!" he grinned to her, and she smiled back before her face when still again. "Then you are the Knight Wren, I... I have to go make sure they found your father." she vanished in a flood of leaves. _

_///////////////////////////// \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\_

"Where is Luke?" he demanded to them. 

"In his-" Ben thundered out, his mother and father had to stumble out to keep up with him. "BEN! Stop! It's finished!" Leia called. Ben froze turning back to her with a glare. 

"I swore, I swore to protect her. I am not going to let her just DIE mom. You can sit there and ignore as she dies, but I can't. If you hate her so much why don't you just cut her down and kill her yourself. Its a better fate then the one she is facing." the words flooded out of him and he turned from her. 

"I know... Ben, I can't do much. Luke is the stronger then I am." He began towards the outbuilding again. 

"Just be sure you know what you are doing." Han told him, grabbing Leia's shoulder. Ben paused again, looking back to his family. His father, he knew his father was fully human. But still he had tried to help her, with guns, but it helped. 

"I don't know..." he glared to his mother. "Because I can't remember EVERYTHING." he hissed. 

"Please don't be mad... I thought it was the best." she finally told him. 

"The best would be to SAVE HER LIFE." he snapped back and left them there. He wanted to kick down Luke's door as well but he was waiting for him. "This is your fault to." he told Luke. 

"I can keep the little ones out... but not him." Luke replied and Ben felt horrible. "What do you need Ben? I'll do anything." Ben straightened himself. He never had stopped training, and keeping himself in shape. No matter how hard it was on his schedule. 

"I need to find someone named Maz." Luke's eyes went wide. "And get rid of whatever it is that is keeping me from remembering everything." he could base his memories on the books, but again, they felt skittered from reality. 

"The... Maz is the deposed queen of summer... I... I can take you to her." Ben grabbed the front of Luke's shirt. "Right now." he added and Ben let him go. 

"I will save her." Ben told his uncle. Luke frowned, shaking his head. 

"What if she doesn't want you to do this Ben?" he asked. Ben punched the front of the building hard enough to crack the brick. He didn't feel an edge of pain, in fact his hand didn't break, it was hole and healthy as he drew back. 

"I know she wants it, she won't ever say it. That's what you and HER never understood." Luke sighed. "She'd do everything she can to not hurt humans." 

"Still a knight," Luke commented with a smile. "You'll need a car. Let me get my things." Ben just nodded heading back towards the house. His mom was waiting for him, she held out the necklace of apple seeds to him. 

"I know you think I hated her." She told him. "I didnt,I hated that she couldn't let you go." He took the necklace from her. He lost it, he thought he lost it a long time ago but she had taken it from him. He could despise her a thousand times over for taking it. 

"It wasnt your choice to make mom. Its mine and if you think I cant make them then its your problem." He snapped. 

"You were a kid!" She protestes. Luke was walking up carrying a big bag. 

"I will always do it mom. I'd always make the same choices no matter what." She grimaced. 

"Stay safe, thats all I want Ben. I want you to be safe." She stood and walked into the house shutting the broken door as well as she could. 

"How much time do you-" Luke started to ask. 

"100 days." Ben snapped quickly. 

"We bettery hurry, Maz is in ireland last I knew, it might take some doing to find her." Ben only nodded unlocking his car. He should be exhausted, he should be more tired then anything else. But he wasnt, it was like he was suffused with energy and power. "I can drive if you need-" Ben slipped into the drivers seat without a word. Luke quickly got in the passanger seat. Ben kicked the car into gear, reversing in a throaty growl and tossing gravel. He was going down the winding road at a speed that had Luke clutching the seat frantically, casting glances at Ben. It wasn't until he was on the freeway that Luke relaxed on the mostly straight road. Ben headed to the first airport he knew of, five agonizing hours away. "BEN. Slow down before you are pulled over." Luke told him calmly. Ben flicked a glance down, he was doing almost ninety, he took the foot of the gas. Getting pulled over would not be quick. 

"I have to hurry." he said lamely. Luke sighed, pulling out a ancient looking book. 

"I know, but you'll take more time if you get arrested." he began to read in the quickly falling dawn. "I can read in the dark," Ben rose his hand about to click on the light, he dropped his hand. "Anakin was a pooka." Luke told him. Ben frowned. Pooka's were tricky, they could shapeshift at a moment's notice. If you lept on the back of one it would ride you for miles, or leagues, until you were exhausted from staying on its back and it would kill you and eat your corpse. Ben recalled a vague memory of cutting the head off one with mixed feelings, in his book it had REY, it had HER on its back and he reacted quickly. But the feeling was without her there, it had shapeshifted into a hazy mirage of her, but he knew it was not. He killed it for the insult he felt. 

"Pooka?" he questioned. Luke made a 'mumph' noise. 

"Yep, that would make you... 1/16th?" Luke said idly. "We thought that was the reason why you were so drawn to the dryad." Ben grimaced. 

"WHY." Ben grit his teeth at the sharp tone. "Why is she the last?" he asked. Luke sighed. 

"The other last one killed the rest. He cut down her tree, and she was able to move to the one she is in now. It was lucky there was another suitable tree so nearby. Maybe that is why..." Ben blinked. 

"Snoke." he commented. 

"Yes. I was wondering when you would figure it out. Its hard to explain how he came about. I learned it from Maz, Leia stayed on the estate while I went to go learn as much magic as I could manage." Ben looked to his uncle with a glare. "I'll explain keep driving and follow the rules of the road." Ben was drifting into the other lane, and quickly righted the car. "Maz is the deposed queen of summer, she did something bad, and it created Snoke. Thus she lost her power as punishment for her actions." Luke said shortly. 

"MORE." Ben snapped, Luke chuckled. 

"Maz wanted a perfect lover, and dryads... and their kind are well known to be so. Only she cared nothing for the male nymphs. All dryads are born female so she decided to create a male one. This hubris of action made the rest of the court aghast. As she told me, she had become obsessed with it and it wasn't until he was created that she realized what she had done. You see Ben, every dryad is born on the same day, the summer solstice, but she had chosen the winter solstice in fear of the court's actions." Luke turned the page concentrating on the pages. "This grew into a twisted tree, a grew gnarled thing, and Snoke himself has no... tie to it. I think if it was cut down he'd not be affected but we don't dare touch the tree." Ben blinked, the Oak tree, the one that was hers... and the one that was resting against his families mansion in her realm. They were two different trees, in two entirely different locations. "Her tree used to be by the home, but Snoke cut it down. Padme put in a iron circle to try to keep him out while the-" 

"REY." Ben hissed quickly. 

"While Rey recovered." Luke didn't miss a beat. "It's lucky she was born close to his own tree, otherwise she'd be dead to." Luke paused to turn the page again. "We tried to plant another by the home, but none of them ever took, I suppose before Snoke left he cursed the grounds. The circle keeps the curse contained. I can't sense it however, so its odd to say for sure." Ben glanced to Luke again. 

"He wants her because she is a dryad and so is he?" 

"Out of all the creatures of the fae the dryads, and those like them, nymphs, can only breed with humans or their own kind Ben." His hands tightened on the wheel. "Snoke wouldn't lower himself to a human, and by the time he realized he could produce no heir she was the last one alive. I think it shocked him that she was in HIS old tree." 

"What about... grandfather?" Luke turned the page again. 

"He was Maz's knight, she gifted Rey him when she hit 100 years old. Snoke came into the picture when she was maybe three hundred? Your ancestors built the house around her tree, and it was... two fifty three? I think I'm not sure you have to ask her, when her tree was cut down. Not long before Snoke started after her in earnest. It wasn't long before we came back to this place. We left when the tree was cut down, I'd guess the monsters that came to do it were so frightening they chased us out." 

"You didn't-" Ben started. 

"I did, you forgot remember?" Ben snorted. "She made you forget so that you'd have a normal life." 

"I don't WANT a normal life. I hate it. I hate every bit of it." Ben said quickly. 

"Yes, well. That's all useless now Ben, you should focus on strategy. Is there a way out of her dealing? Did you hear anything useful?" 

"He swore not to hurt any of us." Luke turned his full attention onto Ben. 

"He must have been desperate then." 

"No. He just wanted to manipulate her, make her think he was being kind." Luke nodded and reached over him, turning on the car lights. Ben didn't even realize he could see so well in the dark. 

"You're getting stronger." Luke explained shortly. Ben started to ignore him. "Tell me what you saw, how he contained her name, you never told me." Luke asked after maybe an hour of near silence. 

"In acorns. He wrote letters on the outside and called her-" Luke slapped his hand onto his chest before he could finish. 

"DO NOT EVER SPEAK THAT." Luke warned. "It could be that it would accelerate, or make it sealed with your saying it. I don't need to know the name at all Ben. Acorns? Fitting though, I would imagine he used his own?" Ben nodded slapping himself mentally for his stupidity. "Yes that would make sense. What portion of the tree was hers?" Luke turned the page again. 

"The larger portion the one that has started to twist over the smaller bit." the tree had been split in half a long time ago, one portion split off from the main trunk nearly to the roots, twisting ungainly towards the sky. The other made a gentle curve away from it, arching over it as it did so like it was seeking to strangle the light from the other. Maybe it was. "Its dying." Ben said quietly. "Are you reading on what is happening?" 

"A little, its hard, the words don't like to be read." Ben glared out the front window. "Its happened a few times, when one dryad was dying. To make the creature human again, a human bargained for its true name, writing it down, to save it, and then putting another in its place. The dryad died as a human then, years later as an old woman." Ben felt disgusted with the tale. He would never do such a thing. "If you learn her true name you might help her out. It could break the seals." 

"Dryads can't go very far from their home tree, how can he make HER-" 

"He probably has a few suitable trees stored Ben." Luke cut him off quickly. "All from himself? I might guess it would work a lot faster. You might not have 100 days at all." Ben was about to floor it, but he heard rather then saw a plane starting to land. He sighed in relief, stopping himself. He grit his teeth together. "Though... if he had a tree for every one he killed... it could bode well." 

"Why would he do that?" Ben demanded. 

"So he would be master over them, over all the dryads, he could GROW them, but they require a... spirit, or something to make them into a dryad. This tale I'm reading says that a human baby was placed in a oak tree hollow to die and became a dryad. It was used to protect an apple grove." 

"Was.... she?" Ben asked softly. Luke looked to Ben and then back down to the book. He quickly rummaged through the bag and produced what looked like a dry bundle of small twigs in a bag. 

"I don't know, you could try this on her, if not use it to bargain for information." Ben glanced to it and then pulled into a long term parking lot. "Its seven seven leaf clovers, around seven verbena twigs, that were cut from a seven year old bush. It was hell to get. Its the most powerful magic item a human could ever make. It will break any spell-" Ben reached for it. "Don't touch it." He drew his hand back. "You are under a few I can see, it would break them and make this useless. You need to break the spells." 

"Another damn thing-" Ben ranted climbing out the car angrily. He was thankful for getting a full tank of gas in the car before he left, he might not have enough in the tank to get to the nearest gas station. 

"Maz can help you Ben. You go get the tickets and I'll find out where she is." Ben nodded barely. 

"Why... help now of all times?" 

"Ben, we vowed to Anakin to protect her for all generations. Its in our blood, and bones. You mother has been spending everything to find a suitable tree for her so we can move her into the circle." Ben nodded again, and then walked quickly away, heading towards the front of the airport. He hated every short step, he could feel the seconds as they ticked by. Only now did much of the exhaustion come up on him, and he pressed it back. On the plane he could rest, he told himself. On the plane he could know they were heading out to save her. 


End file.
